Adenine 'tails' make tailored anchors for DNA

Single-strand DNA can be anchored to a gold substrate for use in biodetectors by attaching a tail of adenine bases. Adenine's strong affinity for gold not only bonds the strands in place but also allows some control over the spacing by adjusting the length of the tail. Credit: NIST Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the University of Maryland (UMD) have demonstrated a deceptively simple technique for chemically bonding single strands of DNA to gold. Among other features, they report in a forthcoming issue* of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the technique offers a convenient way to control the density of the DNA strands on the substrate, which could be important for optimizing DNA sensor arrays.